HILO — Board members for a neighborhood association in North Kona’s Nalani Street subdivision have become a mini-water department, reading the single meter and allotting shares of the bill to residents in some 30 homes. They’re also the collections department,
HILO — Board members for a neighborhood association in North Kona’s Nalani Street subdivision have become a mini-water department, reading the single meter and allotting shares of the bill to residents in some 30 homes. They’re also the collections department, collecting the checks and making sure everyone pays his or her fair share.
To make matters even more complicated, some homeowners had connected their water lines to neighbors’ homes, creating a hodgepodge of possibly substandard pipelines and connections that are susceptible to leaks, further adding to the billing headache for the board members, many of whom are getting on in years.
County Council Chairman Dru Kanuha, representing central Kona, said residents have come to the county for help.
He’s sponsoring Resolution 337 to establish a water system improvement district. The council Finance Committee is scheduled to hear the resolution at 4:15 p.m. Tuesday at the West Hawaii Civic Center.
“They came to us; they were struggling with this,” Kanuha said Friday. “It’s basically a chaotic mix of substandard service lines.”
The resolution, which must pass the committee and then pass a reading at the council level, is just the beginning of the process.
The Department of Water Supply then submits a report, giving general details of the improvement plan, boundaries of the improvement district and the estimated cost to be borne by the county and the homeowners. Public hearings are held to explain the process and take input from residents.
More than half the homeowners must approve the district for it to take effect. Depending on the income level of the residents, the project could qualify for U.S. Department of Agriculture loans or grants.
“We’re fully supportive,” said Keith Okamoto, manager/chief engineer for the Department of Water Supply. “If this is what the community wants and needs, we’re fully supportive as we have been with other subdivisions in the past.”
The county established a similar improvement district in 2011 for the Kona Ocean View subdivision also known as Puukala.
Each homeowner there was assessed about $15,000, to be paid over a period of no more than 35 years. The subdivision had existed without county water since the 1950s.
“Every situation is unique,” Okamoto said. “But we’re ready to implement a program that has proven successful in the past.”
